Wondering what that's going to be like as there's no way I'm gonna pick up any of the others and play them first. Can this story be enjoyed on its own? I'm guessing confusion will abound since I'm not familiar with any of the back story that (I assumes) sets all this up but wondering how essential that is to enjoying this one.

Got home way late, so all I managed to do was install it. It amused me to watch Health Warnings about sitting back far enough, well lit area, take a break every 15 minutes, yada yada... all while Snake chain smokes.

Well the correct answer that you don't want to hear is don't play the game without playing the previous 3. Would you want to watch Return of the Jedi without watching New Hope or Empire Strikes back?

You're coming in when more than 3/4 of the story has been created and delivered. You can probably cobble together bits and pieces by playing through it and or reading wikis, but you'll totally be blowing the overall experience, imo.

Seriously- if you've played the first two games and then play MGS3 the end of MGS3 flips you on your head and totally sets the table for MGS4 (I can't imagine the poor fools who saw that ending and then had to wait years for MGS4. late adopting FTW!). MGS3 in the context of the other 2 is something that you should experience. Bottom line.

I played through 1 on the original PS, then played a bit of MGS2 on the xbox, but that's it. I feel I know enough about the series to suitably enjoy this version though. I've read enough stuff, watched enough movies to get the jist of what I have missed.

You have taken leave of your senses. MGS2 is possibly the best game of the series.

Seriously? Part 2 is no where near as good as 3. Two was the worst offender of 20 minute cutscene, followed by walking down a hallway, only to get another 20 minute cutscene. And don't even get me started on Raiden or the fact that the entire game took place in one boring grey environment.

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" And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason." Isaac Asimov

You have taken leave of your senses. MGS2 is possibly the best game of the series.

Seriously? Part 2 is no where near as good as 3. Two was the worst offender of 20 minute cutscene, followed by walking down a hallway, only to get another 20 minute cutscene. And don't even get me started on Raiden or the fact that the entire game took place in one boring grey environment.

Seriously? Part 2 is no where near as good as 3. Two was the worst offender of 20 minute cutscene, followed by walking down a hallway, only to get another 20 minute cutscene.

That's why it's awesome. You really play MGS for the gameplay? The story is the point of MGS. That story is told via cutscenes. If there are in fact 90 minute cutscenes in MGS4 I just have one thing to say: YES! PLEASE!

I bet few people were sitting around going: I can't wait to play MGS4 because of the obtuse controls and sneaking gameplay. It's the story! THE STORY! It's to see what Kojima does next...

*Raises hand* I do, I do! Seriously, your reaction to MGS3 is becoming even more clear. The gameplay is often utterly fantastic (even if the interface...isn't) but Kojima doesn't hold your hand on it so if you sit around and expect the game to show you all of the cool stuff you can do then it just won't happen. That's what makes the series so replayable to me and not the story (which I can always just re-experience on Youtube).

As I put my MGS3 disc back into the MGS3 case and was hit by the poignancy of of the cover art, I have to reconsider my statement.

I LOVE MGS2. I loved the boss battles, I loved the wacky characters, and I loved the cutscenes.

But man. (I should create a macro for this:) the way MGS3 just flips the player and the world on its head can't be understated.

Maybe I'll call MGS2 and MGS3 a draw

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Seriously, your reaction to MGS3 is becoming even more clear. The gameplay is often utterly fantastic (even if the interface...isn't) but Kojima doesn't hold your hand on it so if you sit around and expect the game to show you all of the cool stuff you can do then it just won't happen.

Well given how I apparently missed all the gameplay (thanks to horrible documentation) with regard to CQC, I think it's fair for me to be tinged. Not holding hands is one thing- expecting me to figure out a complicated combat methodology on my own...well that's a bit too far.

That said, I can see the roots of MGS4's CQC in MGS3 and well. I missed a lot.

Oh yeah, I absolutely agree that not adequately explaining CQC in MGS3 is a huge oversight. But it's a general principle of the entire series and it existed in MGS2 as well- there were all kinds of neat things to do (especially getting involved in enemy holdups) but I think most people just kind of tranq'd their way through the game.

At the midnight launch for MGS4, I was shocked at how many young kids were walking out with their parents and the bundle.I picture a bunch of kids staring at the tv screen while playing this game screaming"Mom....I keep dying. How do I fight? How do I shoot?Mom, can we go buy Mario? I'm sorry honey, theres no Mario for this system.Mom, can we get a Wii?"

Strangely enough, I would estimate that I understood at least 95% of the series going into MGS4 (MGS2 even makes perfect sense to me).

Though I am so happy that I finally got around to playing through the "bad" ending of MGS1 this year. Before that I actually didn't know:

Spoiler for Hiden:

that Meryl was Campbell's daughter

which would have created a major WTF moment for me in MGS4.

yeah, i understand a bit more than i let on ... but i still think there's a very nice, rashomon -type thing to the series, where you're constantly re-seeing from other perspectives... which is, indeed, very lifelike...

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"... i'm not against some 'monkey catching'... but i'd rather be collecting pants..."- snake, 'snake vs monkey' (mgs3:se)

FWIW- it's actually quicker to playthrough the original PS1 MGS1 instead of Twin Snakes. The cutscenes in TTS take longer (despite having the same content) and the increased AI capabilities of the guards along with Snake's new abilities actually make it a slower paced game.

if you put them on very easy you will prolly shave an hour or two off the times

i said this to someone on the UK PS3 forums and he said he finished MGS1 in 4 hrs WITH the cutscenes.....as Kev says though,he had the MGS1 version,i had the twin snakes...i still reckon 4 hrs is a bit short though,and wouldnt be suprised if it was maybe 6 or 7 really

The easier the game settings, the faster it takes to go through. At harder difficulties, getting spotted can mean death as waves of troops come in to look for you. But, at easier settings an experienced shooter player can easily fight his way through.

I love all the little details in the game and it should be interesting to see what funny little things people find in the game.

Thanks for all of the interesting discusssions, I wish I had enough gaming time in my life to go back and play all of the old games I missed out on. I guess Devil & I will just have to suck it up and muddle through this together.

A question on MGS4 - will having played any of the other three mean that intro game show and octopus girl sequence thing will make sense? 'Cuz right now it just gets a big WTF? from me.

Well, I've played through 1 (and the remake), and 2, along with the NES games (like that matters), and I've had no problems at all with the story. Maybe it was because I watched the Metal Gear Retrospective on GameTrailers beforehand, I dunno. Basically, if you haven't played the older titles, you don't know who the players are and how they're all connected.

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"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

This confused me until I started over, didn't realize the first two shown are seemingly random picks. Just saw 'Bomb Shelter Buffet' (where we get an interesting snake comment at the end) and something about Mantis Defense Systems... both very nicely done.

I guess I'm going the add experience route and trying to play through the rest before tackling 4. Turns out I didn't have much more to go in the first one (only about 2 or 3 hours). I am a slow player, though, so I don't expect to get to 4 until next year sometime.

I'm not exactly no MGS experience, but I only really played through MGS1 when it first came out. I brushed up with the pre-order DVD and wikipedia and youtube. So far it hasn't seemed to be detrimental to my game enjoyment. If I wonder about a charactere, I just head back to wikipedia to brush up.